QT Collagen Review

Following on from my review of the Nutra Organics Collagen Beauty, I wanted to share a review of the other collagen powder I’ve been testing this year – QT Collagen. I was sent a one months supply of the QT Collagen Belle powder and the Encore tablets to try out, which was super exciting as I had seen this brand all over Instagram and everyone raved about it.

Before I get started on the review, you can read about the benefits of collagen and why a collagen supplement is good for you, in this post here.

There are two products that make up the womens line of QT Collagen (there is also a men’s range available too). These are Belle, which comes in a powder form and Encore which is in tablet form. You can take one or the other, but both are recommended for the best results. During the process of trialling these products (around two months), I did use slightly less of the Belle powder than recommended and only one Encore tablet, rather than the recommended two. I also stopped taking it for a couple of weeks, which I’ll explain why later in the post. Hence why my supply lasted longer than a month.

WHAT IS AN INTERNAL COSMETIC?

QT market their range of products as an internal cosmetic rather than a collagen powder. While the products do contain a really high level of collagen, they also contain added ingredients which are included as they also work to enhance your skin, hair and nails. QT work on the philosophy that beauty happens from the inside out, so in order to have good skin and hair, you need to be ingesting the right type of stuff.

The QT Collagen products contain type 1 and type 3 collagen which are derived from both marine and bovine collagen. At first I thought this product was vegetarian since they really only market it as a marine collagen, but it is definitely not suitable for vegetarians. Both of these types of collagen work wonders on reducing fine lines, wrinkles, and ensuring you hair, skin and nails are looking the best. As well as collagen, the QT products are also packed with other skin-enhancing minerals and vitamins.

These products are marketed to improve your skin health; reduce fine lines, wrinkles, and other signs of ageing as well as eliminating acne, redness and uneven skin tone. They are also designed to help with hair and nail health – encouraging them to grow long and strong.

ABOUT THE QT BELLE INTERNAL COSMETIC

Belle is the star of the show in the QT line up. This collagen powder is packed with minerals and vitamins that are designed to aid in making your skin look more youthful, clear and glowing. One tub of this powder is 220 grams and this is a one month supply. Each serve is 1 & 1/2 scoops (7.5grams), which you mix into water.

This is marketed as being really easy to dissolve in cold water, which I wouldn’t agree with. You have to stir for ages to get rid of most of the clumps, and even then there tends to be a few left floating around on the surface. Potentially a shaker bottle might make this issue go away, but I haven’t tried that. It has a really nice passionfruit flavour and is easy to drink as it tastes nice. It is quite sweet, so I started mixing 1 scoop in and found this to be better. You can also include this in smoothies etc too, but again I haven’t tried taking it this way.

As well as collagen, the QT products also contain the following;

• Tremella – a type of mushroom that supports skin hydration and is known for enhancing the skin
• Natural silica – helps with hair and nail strength and aids the ingestion of collagen
• Vitamin C – aids in the absorption of collagen and is also an essential vitamin
• Lotus – high in antioxidants and aids in reducing free radicals

ABOUT THE QT ENCORE INTERNAL COSMETIC

Encore comes in a tablet form, and the recommended dosage is 2 tablets per day. You can take this seperate to the Belle powder, however I haven’t tried this as I took them both at the same time. They are clear capsules that are really easy to swallow. I took 2 capsules a couple of times, but for the most part I was taking one, just due to the fact it seemed like a lot to be taking 2 capsules + a full dose of the Belle – all of which are supposed to be really high strength.

As well as collagen, the Encore tablets include….

• Tremella – a type of mushroom that supports skin hydration and is known for enhancing the skin
• Vitamin C – aids in the absorption of collagen and is also an essential vitamin
• Lotus – high in antioxidants and aids in reducing free radicals
• Keratin – the key component in your hair and nails
• Magnesium – helps with muscle recovery, sleep, and fighting acne
• Blackseed – overall good for the body
• Red Clover – slows down ageing and assists with a youthful appearance
• Raspberry Leaf – helps to regulate hormones and promotes healthy skin
• Zinc – an essential mineral, helps with acne.

ANY CHANGE IN SKIN?

I’ll be totally honest, I didn’t notice a huge change in my skin. I’m really lucky that my skin is actually quite clear and I get very few pimples anyway, so this product really didn’t make any magical changes to my skin. I invest a lot of time into a good skincare routine and I do drink a lot of water, so my skin always feels smooth and hydrated anyway. I do sometimes get a few closed comedones around my chin, and this product had no effect on them at all.

It’s also  really hard to say whether it fixes/prevents fine lines as I don’t really have any. While I didn’t notice much of a change in my skin, there are case studies on their website where people claim this fixes up acne and a lot of people swear by it.

ANY CHANGE IN NAILS & HAIR?

This was where I noticed a huge change, my hair grew so incredibly fast! In fact it grew so fast I had to book in a hair appointment after two months rather than my normal 4, as I had so much regrowth! (which is great, but also not so great! 😕💰) This stuff definitely encourages your hair to grow, so it would be perfect for anyone who is trying to grow their hair longer. My nails also grew really fast, probably about 2 times quicker than normal! The only thing I noticed was that my nails weren’t necessarily any stronger, so they did break quite a bit as they grew longer, so I never really ended up with very long nails at all. I imagine the longer you took this product for, the stronger they would grow.

WHAT ABOUT THE GUT?

This product isn’t really designed to assist with gut health and instead really focuses on the cosmetic use of collagen. This is a bit of a shame as that is one of the key reasons while I do include collagen in my diet. For the first few weeks before I had a reaction (more on that below), I didn’t notice any improvement or change in my gut health. I still felt bloated occasionally and didn’t notice any benefits from taking this product (unlike the Nutra Organics Collagen Powder which I did notice had a positive effect on my gut). So if you are looking for an all-round collagen for both skin and gut, this isn’t your product.

A BIT OF A REACTION……

After about 3 weeks of taking the QT Collagen, I noticed I was sleeping terribly. I hadn’t had a good sleep in about 2 weeks (looking back, I’m unsure if this was product related or not), so I decided to take a Magnesium supplement to help me sleep. Which it did, but it also gave me a very irritated bowel. I stopped taking all supplements for about 2.5 weeks, until my tummy started to settle down a bit. I then started back on the QT Collagen only. Within three days, I had a really upset stomach again and it wasn’t until nearly a week later that I realised that it might be the QT products and I stopped taking them completely. Right away my stomach stopped being irritated and I felt fine and have continued to be fine for weeks now. While I don’t think they caused the issue in the first place, I do think they continued to irritate my stomach.

Another thing I didn’t click to until I stopped taking these products was that they made me very irritated and grumpy around the middle of my cycle. I’ve never had this before and only had it the two times when I was consuming these products so have definitely put it down to this. I’m guessing it’s the Raspberry Leaf extract in the Encore capsules that caused this as it is supposed to regulate your hormones, but it definitely made me much more irritable and frustrated than normal. Regulating hormones is great – unless you don’t actually need to do so and then it can really throw things out of whack!

NUTRITIONAL INFO

• Collagen: 4.5 grams per 7 gram serve or 65 grams per 100 gram serving
• Protein: 4.3 grams per 7 gram serve or 62 grams per 100 gram serving
• Fat: 0.2 grams per 100 gram serving
• Sugar: 1 gram per 100 gram serving
• Carbs: 10 grams per 100 gram serving

So overall, this product actually has significantly less collagen than the cheaper Nutra Organics product, and also has less protein, but more sugar and more carbs

HOW MUCH IS IT ALL?

So here’s the thing…. this stuff is pretty expensive. In fact, I just about choked on my drink when I read that one months supply of Belle and Encore is nearly $150 per month. The Belle powder by itself is $109 per month (save 15% if you subscribe to get it each month) and the Encore tablets are $39.90 per month (again save 15% if you subscribe). This adds up to a total of $1,500+ per year (even with the 15% subscribers discount), if you take Belle & Encore at the prescribed rate.

QT COLLAGEN REVIEW – FINAL THOUGHTS

I’ll be honest, at the start I loved this stuff. I was blown away by how fast my hair and nails grew and I felt pretty good taking it. My energy levels were great and I liked that it tasted nice and was fairly easy to take. I think it’s really easy to get sucked in with the hype surrounding these product on social media – I know I did and I guess that’s why first impressions aren’t always that great!

Now I’ll be honest, while this stuff is absolutely amazing for growing your hair, I’m not sure that many people can realistically afford to spend $1,500 a year on collagen powder, especially when there are close alternatives. I know I personally wouldn’t spend that much per year on collagen powder, when I can get something similar for $360 a year in the form of the Nutra Organics Collagen Beauty product. The other thing is that my hair grew almost too quickly, to the point where I’d need to get it coloured and cut far more regularly, which then adds to my hair bill each year.

Overall I think if you were wanting to take this for a specific purpose then it would be worth it. Eg, wanting to grow your hair for a wedding, or take it to see if it cleared up acne. But to be on it full time, then I feel like there are other products that work just as well too. Obviously, if you had the budget to spend of stuff like this, then by all means go for it, but for the most part I feel like it’s a bit out of the price range for many of us and not worth stretching yourself to be able to afford it.

If you are really desperate to try this out, you could also try halving the dose which will give you a little longer out of the set but also still give decent results. As I mentioned, I was taking 1 Encore tablet and just under 1 scoop of Belle per day. The other option is to try just the Encore range too – that one is packed with all the goodies for nail and hair health.

You can check out the full range of products over on the QT Collagen website – sometimes they also have sales and bundle deals too which make it a bit more affordable. In all honesty would I purchase? No.